RobRoy
It's just stuff - but fun
Yep. In some areas. And I've been able to juxtapose police presence in two different neighborhoods to understand one aspect of what is going on out there:
In the Seattle area (I left 9 years ago) there were a lot of Music in the Park events. Bands would play, people would bring their own food and drink, kids, etc. Of the many I went to, I saw a stark difference between two:
One was near a lake in the Kent area. This is a middle class area which was very much in my high-school stomping grounds. The crowd was mostly young people and young families. People had coolers of pop (and beer) and were eating home made sandwiches, take out pizza, buckets of KFC, etc. The cops were walking through the crowd looking for alcohol. It was strictly forbidden. And there was some drunken carousing going on. The cops' presence was NOT welcome by the crowd and it was very much an "us vs them" thing. And when it was over, though it wasn't as bad as the Woodstock aftermath, the garbage was a bit reminiscent.
The other one was near my home on Mercer Island. It is a very upscale place. In fact, my neighbor a couple blocks down was Paul Allen. That gives a feel. FWIW, the reason I lived there was that I found a three bedroom house at a ridiculously low rent because they were planning on selling in a year.
Anyway, as with the other one, the crowd included familes, young couples and a stronger mix of elderly peoople. People had food and drink. But the drink was pop, bottled water, micro-brew beer and wine. People were drinking their wine out of Baccarat or similar crystal and a lot of guys were drinking their beer out of glasses they brought with them. There was a lot of cheese, grapes, salami and crackers as well as homemade gourmet foods, salads, dips, etc. There was some take-out pizza and KFC as well, but not as much. The cops were wandering through the crowd, stopping occasionally to visit. They were not the least bit concerned about the alcohol. It was all adults and there were not any unaccompanied teens that I saw. It was much more peaceful.
One amazing aspect was that after everyone had left, you would never have known anybody was there. EVERYONE pitched in and cleaned up. It was amazing.
Now, this is a tale of two American cultures. coexisting within a relatively short distance of each other. But one group was more mature, and could be trusted by the cops, the other had earned the police scrutiny. But here's the critical thing: The Kent site had elderly people at it as well - but a large portion of them were "still children". They had never really grown up. And they were, under the right conditions, dangerous to themselves and others. But there was none of that at the Mercer Island one. Zero. The maturity level was much higher - for all ages. And the police interaction with the folks there was on a completely different plane as well.
And the bottom line in all of this, to me, is this: If you want the better lifestyle, but live in the lower lifestyle neighborhood, you need to do two things first: 1. Grow up. 2. Get the heck out of that neighborhood at all costs.
